Saturday, February 8, 2014

Now You See Me (2013) [PG-13] ****

A
film review by Scott Bowles, USA Today, May 31, 2013.

While
hawking his latest film Now You See Me
earlier this month, Morgan Freeman
nodded off during a live television interview that became a viral sensation. Consider
it Freeman's stab at mentalism, a telepathic warning about this
clumsily-executed story of magicians with a penchant for bank robbery.

Boasting
a terrific cast and a flimsy plot whose logic disappears faster than a rabbit
in a hat, Now You See Me struggles to
pull off its cinematic sleights of hand. Jesse
Eisenberg plays J. Daniel Atlas, a David Blaine-styled stunt magician who
leads a crew of devious prestidigitators through a series of bank heists that
catch the attention of the FBI and Interpol. Joining the crew are mentalist
Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson),
escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher)
and street magician Jack Wilder (Dave
Franco). Soon the group, known as the Four Horsemen, is ripping off banks
across the globe — and spreading the wealth among audiences like levitating
Robin Hoods.

But
the story, as directed by Louis
Leterrier (Clash of the Titans),
can't quite get off the ground. That's something of a surprise, given a cast
that should be able to make any story defy gravity. In addition to the
Horsemen, we meet Thaddeus Bradley (Freeman), a former magician turned TV host
who pulls back the curtain on illusionists. The Horsemen are assembled and led
by the wealthy and mysterious Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine), whose ultimate goal remains a mystery.

The
crux of Now You See Me's woes is the
illusions themselves. Magic is never easy on film — just ask the folks behind The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, the
recent ill-fated Steve Carell story of magicians that made audiences disappear
from theaters. Similar woes afflict Now
You See Me, whose secrets are apparent: computer-generated effects and plot
conventions. The mentalist can hypnotize over the phone; the mind-reader
flashes your thoughts on building facades. Good magic is plausible; these
tricks are too outlandish to make you ask how
did they do that?

There
are flashes of razzle-dazzle. Harrelson, in particular, gets laugh-out-loud
lines, and Eisenberg seems to know real sleight of hand. But it's mostly smoke
and mirrors. After Freeman's snooze became a YouTube fixture, the actor
jokingly dismissed the nap, saying he was using Google eyelids to check his Facebook account. You may find yourself
attempting the same feat, because Now You
See Me has little up its sleeve. [Bowles' rating: ** out of 4]